He wrapped me in a hug that felt tighter than usual, and I breathed him in: he smelled like some generic dude cologne, but it was comforting regardless. ‘Thank you for everything,’ I said.

Mom made us take pictures in the front yard, which I wasn’t happy about but Leo relished, positioning me like a mannequin into all manner of awkward prom positions.

We did go to Ol-eev Gar-dain two towns over where we gorged ourselves on unlimited breadsticks and when the waitress called us a lovely couple, we didn’t correct her.

And by the time we got to the high school, I felt I had loosened up. I told Leo this.

‘It was probably the breadsticks,’ he said.

We joined the horde of kids all funnelling in, moving like a school of fish, like one sentient mass. ‘Where are all the black people?’ Leo asked, after scrutinizing the crowd. ‘Am I in Get Out? Is this actually an auction?’

‘Pleasant Hills, dude.’

‘Mmph. Pleasant indeed.’

We made our way through the entrance, past a parent-run bag check. Bea’s mom said hello to me but gave both of us a double take.

Balloons dotted the floor and hovered above us; fairy lights flickered along the walls, whole strings of them strewn everywhere, across the ceiling, on the floor, along the tables.

I was looking for June at first. Of course I was. I kept thinking I saw her, but no one else had hair like her so really I was just kidding myself. Leo noticed I kept looking, so once we’d filed into the gym, which was packed and loud and full of blacklights, he physically turned my head to face him, and said, with no ounce of romance or misunderstanding or malice, and his hands on my face, ‘Hey. Be here with me, now.’

At first it felt like a betrayal.

But then it became completely stupid and completely fun. We didn’t know any of the words to the songs but it didn’t matter. The lights bounced from his face to mine, and his tie became looser, and I thought of how, if Gerry could see us, she would shout, ‘Oh, finding joy in the darkness! That’s what life is all about!’ My cynicism leaped from me in the form of sweat and belly-laughter and shrieks that came from deep in my throat – Leo spun me and twirled me and the cringey DJ was about thirty-two, we said, what was he doing at a high school? He kept playing these bad songs and we just laughed and laughed and laughed, fast-danced to the fast songs and slow-danced to the slow ones, and Leo was so much taller than me that my arms couldn’t wrap round him so my hands just sort of sat round his neck, as though I was very half-heartedly attempting to strangle him, and we laughed at that too.

And that was the world, for a bit. A world without June, without Dad, without death. Leo felt like the most important and wonderful thing.